Airline Pilots May Be Next in the Corporate War on Unions

Flexjet is pushing to get rid of the Teamsters in one of the last private-sector strongholds of organized labor.

WTH!!!

U.S. commercial pilots are one of the few remaining strongholds of America’s diminished labor movement, but Flexjet LLC is trying to upend that conventional wisdom. Anti-union advocates are watching as a battle between the Teamsters and the jet-leasing company plays out, with one non-profit group representing Flexjet employees who are pushing to get the union out.

Some 550 pilots will start voting Wednesday on whether to embrace the company’s entreaties to dump the Teamsters, which arrived at Flexjet just a few years ago. The government-supervised vote, which will be held electronically through May 30, comes two years after the pilots narrowly voted to join the union. Since then, the Teamsters have been unable to secure a contract deal with the Cleveland-based company. The National Mediation Board, the federal agency responsible for airline labor relations, ordered the election after receiving a petition to oust the Teamsters signed by the majority of pilots at Flexjet and sister company Flight Options.

“The union really hasn’t proven that they’ve been able to do anything positively for the pilots,” said company Chairman Kenn Ricci, who is encouraging employees to go union-free.

Union leaders counter that the vote culminates a cynical, years-long strategy by Flexjet to stoke pilot frustration by blocking progress at the bargaining table, falsely blaming the union for the deadlock and coercing employees to give up the union.

“They have never accepted that the union is on their property,” said Efrem Vojta, president of the local Teamsters unit.

Re: Airline Pilots May Be Next in the Corporate War on Unions

Flexjet Pilots Reject Teamsters In Big Defeat For Labor Stronghold

Pilots at Flexjet LLC voted to end representation by the Teamsters union, a significant blow to organized labor in one of its few remaining strongholds and a coup for the jet-leasing company, which steered a heated campaign to sway workers.

Pilots voted by a margin of 318 to 220 to decertify the Teamsters in electronic voting over the past month, according to results verified by a representative of the National Mediation Board Wednesday. The pilots had voted narrowly to join the union in 2016, but since then had been unable to secure a contract deal with the Cleveland-based company. The union blamed a cynical campaign and delay strategy by deeply anti-union Flexjet officials for the reversal in employee sentiment.

Management hailed the vote, which it said “will provide Flexjet with a huge competitive advantage in the fractional jet ownership market.” In recent months, the company has sent workers anti-union messages including one referencing a “long list of Teamsters companies that are no longer in business,” and launched a “Vote For Flexjet” website telling employees that if they dumped the Teamsters, “the company will be able to work directly with the pilots and make our airline great again.”*

Re: Airline Pilots May Be Next in the Corporate War on Unions

Look at all the companies that are no longer in business that were represented by the Teamsters?.....It's apparent no one bothered to call Flex Jet out on WHY they are no longer in business. Look to the ******** that sent you lie ridden propoganda Flex Jet Pilots. Poor management is the cause.